Tagged: Sergio Mitre

… I want to keep defending you, I really do. You’re making it very difficult for me, though.

I almost didn’t want to write this blog post, because I’ve exhausted the topic of Javier Vazquez. I still have faith that he’ll turn it around, but I’m pretty frustrated. I’m frustrated, but I haven’t given up hope. I want to see him do well, I want to see him succeed. Obviously, Javy succeeding will lead to the Yankees succeeding. I also want him to do well because it would be a great comeback in the Bronx. After the miserable end to his first stint with us, I really wanted to see Javier Vazquez come back to New York and dominate.

He can still do it, there’s plenty of time left in the season. He just needs to address the mechanical problems behind his horrible fastball. His fastball was his strength, he doesn’t have it right now. His current fastball is lifeless and, well, not so fast. Losing his strong pitch has caused him to also lose confidence in his pitching, which is natural. You don’t want a pitcher on the mound with no confidence. The game is largely mental, especially for pitchers. He will regain his confidence once he regains his good fastball. Until then…

… we wait.

I still have confidence in him, as crazy as that may seem righ
t now. He is exercising my patience, though. Testing it. I will be patient. Worst-case scenario, he continues to do poorly, and we don’t use him in the postseason.

I can’t write about Vazquez anymore. I just can’t. I believe he will turn it around, but he needs a little bit of time to straighten out his mechanics. It’s not like he’s a young rookie who doesn’t know how to handle the big leagues on a mental level. He’s just an experienced pitcher who’s lost his way. He’ll find it again. I know he will.

This is what Javy had to say: “It’s tough, I can’t hide that. But I promise everybody I’m going to keep working hard at it and battle through it.”

… and I promise to keep having faith that you will battle through it, Javy.

I’m not going to go into great detail about the “glove incident” in the third inning. Ozzie Guillen said he had nothing to do with it. Yeah, right; and I have nothing to do with what I’m about to say:

Kiss my a**, Ozzie.

Vazquez had been using that very same glove for a few years now, yet no one said anything. Let’s assume that a new rule was implemented for gloves this year. Well, Vazquez has used that glove in his previous starts, and no one said anything. Let’s assume that the new rule was implemented minutes before the start of the game. Well, JJ Putz used the same glove, later on in the game, except the colors were reversed. You guessed it, no one said anything.

Ozzie, methinks you doth protest too much.

What difference does it make, Ozzie? Was Vazquez really killing you out there, forcing you to mess with him? It was pretty low to mess with Vazquez’s head like that, it doesn’t need any more messing with. I doubt it had much to do with Javy’s performance, but it was still pretty annoying to see.

From one frustration to another…

Curtis Granderson pulled a groin muscle and landed on the Disabled List. That’s just [expletive] great.

What does this mean for the Yankees? Well, in practice, it means that we’ll have to depend on Joe Girardi’s management much more than we did before. Curtis Granderson’s bat wasn’t exactly the hottest in the lineup in April, but then again neither was A-Rod’s or Teixeira’s. He was still great to have in the lineup, and even better to have in the outfield.

Now, with Grandy on the DL, we’ll probably see a platoon between Randy Winn and Marcus Thames in left field. Thames’ bat has been hot, but his fielding is atrocious. Winn’s fielding is wonderful, but his bat leaves much to be desired. It’ll all come down to the right balance between the two, to make up for Granderson’s absence. Brett Gardner will be moved to center field, and the platoon will take over left. The right balance must be found by Joe Girardi.

While it makes me quite uneasy to depend so much on Girardi’s management, the man knows what he’s doing, more often than not, when it comes to hitting. I said “more often than not”, so don’t attack me with “remember Jeter bunting in the postseason?” in an attempt to refute my statement. Girardi makes a lot of good decisions most of the time, but when he messes up, he really does mess up.

Let’s hope that he gets it right. I’m choosing to remain optimistic.

One good thing about this game was that it proved my thoughts on Sergio Mitre wrong. I didn’t want him on the roster to begin with, because I assumed that all of our starting pitchers would eat up innings. Our starters (except for Javy) have been pitching deep into games, so we haven’t seen much of Mitre. My mistake was that I assumed Vazquez would gobble up innings like he has his entire career. If I’ve learned anything from John Sterling, it’s that you can’t predict baseball.

So, I admit that I was 100% wrong about Sergio Mitre. Having him on the roster is necessary. No shame in being wrong, as long as I admit my mistake, and learn from it.

Sergio Mitre pitched well in long-relief of Javier Vazquez. We might see him make a few spot starts this season, when our pitchers need their starts skipped for whatever reason.

Another good thing about this game was Boone Logan. He only faced one batter, and I still don’t like the whole “LOOGY” role, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Boone’s pitching. His fastball was F.I.L.T.H.Y.

He threw four pitches. Four pitches were enough. His first three pitches were clocked at 95 MPH, and his final pitch was clocked at 97 MPH. I heard that the Yankees actually clocked it at 98, but the scoreboard showed 97. Either way, that is NASTY. Three straight 95ers, then a 97 to end it? What more can you ask from a reliever? Maybe he’ll start to get a little more respect from the fans now.

If he keeps that velocity up, he could prove to be a very valuable asset in our bullpen. He’s sure beating his fellow lefty reliever, Damaso Marte, so far. I’m glad we have Logan on the roster now. He needs to stay focused. This could be his “break out” year.